Fit for Life: Pop-Tarts & Tostitos?
Matt Espeut, GoLocal Contributor
Fit for Life: Pop-Tarts & Tostitos?
Last Saturday, after a busy morning, I went home and decided to relax a bit and watch some college football. I like this time of year when good teams rise to the top and start playing in various bowl games.
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When I search the TV guide for games, I look for the games with the highest-ranked teams, as they are usually the best games due to the caliber of the teams playing.
This year, however, something else caught my eye.
I noticed one of the bowl games was sponsored by Pop-Tarts. Yes, those delicious toaster pastries from back in the day that came two to a pack, covered with sugary frosting, that we put in the toaster until they were warm and soft.
I couldn’t believe what I was watching. Not only did they sponsor the televised bowl game, but they also passed out Pop-Tarts to everyone in the stadium. Even the players got a giant Pop tart after the game.
The announcers were raving about them, and every commercial had Pop-Tarts in it.
Tostitos has been a sponsor for years now, but Pop-Tarts is taking it to a whole new level.
Unfortunately, this is what we are up against. Big food is being allowed to poison our food supply and advertise it so aggressively that millions get hooked on its products.
That’s not the worst part. It's a fun fact that a large majority of the foods on our shelves are not allowed in Canada or most of Europe. Nope, they won’t allow the toxic ingredients we put on our shelves, on theirs.
Kellogg actually has two manufacturing facilities: one for us, and one for everyone else they distribute their products to.
Just to put things in perspective, I looked up the ingredients in pop tarts for your reading pleasure.
Ingredients: Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, vitamin B1 [thiamin mononitrate], vitamin B2 [riboflavin], folic acid), corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, sugar, soybean and palm oil (with TBHQ for freshness), bleached wheat flour. Contains 2% or less of wheat starch, salt, dried strawberries, dried pears, dried apples, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, mono-calcium phosphate), citric acid, gelatin, modified wheat starch, yellow corn flour, caramel color, xanthin gum, cornstarch, turmeric extract color, soy lecithin, red 40, yellow 6, blue 1, color added.
Now understand that when I mention clean eating and nutrition, none of the ingredients found in Pop-Tarts qualify as good quality food. Actually, it’s the complete opposite. Every ingredient is unnecessary for human consumption, and causes an inflammatory effect on the body.
It doesn’t end with Pop-Tarts. Watching the ads during the bowl game and seeing a stadium full of people consuming junk food fueled me to write this article so you can be informed and educated the next time you hit the market.
I also wanted to shine a light on how Big Food companies promote their unhealthy products to us, and how we fall for it because of the time, effort and money spent to get us hooked on their products.
Their intentions are profit and not the health and well-being of the consumers.
I know I am fighting an uphill battle due to the fact that when I am at the market, I still see people's carriages full of colorful, packaged garbage food that feeds disease and obesity; however, I hope that reading this makes you more aware of what you are putting in your body.
So how do we combat these giants and regain and maintain our health?
- Stay informed. You can research everything these days, so educate yourself on the harmful effects eating processed food does to your health.
- Shop around the perimeter of the market. Try to avoid the aisles that are a majority of processed food and snacks.
- Try to stick with foods that have the least amount of ingredients. Foods like beef, broccoli, carrots, fish and chicken are 1 ingredient foods that will bring you health and vitality when consumed on a regular basis.
- Get the Yuka app. There are several apps that you can use to scan foods in the market, and they will tell you all the harmful ingredients in each product.
- Drink water. Stay away from colored beverages and juices, as they contain tons of empty calories and sugar.
- Log your food. When you do this, you get a good view of what you are consuming, therefore making it more likely that you will choose better quality food to consume on a daily basis.
Here’s the deal. Nobody is perfect, and we all need a treat once in a while, however we can’t aimlessly just walk around and give into every temptation that falls in front of us.
BIG FOOD COMPANIES WANT YOU TO GET ADDICTED TO THEIR PRODUCTS, and they will do everything in their power to succeed.
It’s up to us to be informed, and care about what we are putting into our bodies in order to maintain optimal health and fitness. I am not a physician or a scientist, but after 30+ years of being in the trenches, doing my own research, and understanding how to optimize human performance, I can give you enough information to make good decisions.
I want the best for all my members and readers, and it infuriates me to see how the media and big food influence folks to do things that bring harm and sickness.
Currently, we are fighting a world filled with metabolic syndrome, heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease, aka The Four Horsemen, and they are contributing to 85% of the deaths in our country.
The good news is that we can fight back by taking control of our health and not succumbing to the detrimental products placed on the shelves in front of us.
Just knowing that avoiding heavily processed, man-made foods will contribute to keeping the four horsemen at bay will give you the tools and knowledge to make the right decision for you and your family the next time you hit the market!!
Committed to your health and fitness,
Coach Matt